The Olivetti Historical Archive Association, established in Ivrea in 1998, as an initiative of the Olivetti Company, in covenant with the Adriano Olivetti Foundation and with the participation of important public and private partners, carries out a collection, organisation, preservation, study and promotion activity for the extremely vast archival heritage regarding the history of the Company and personalities from the Olivetti Family. This project continues the work began by the Olivetti Historical Archive, established in 1986, to whom the Adriano Olivetti Foundation assigned preservation of their respective documental heritage.
The most substantial part of the archival and library heritage today preserved by the Association comes from the Olivetti Company and consists of documents, letters, books, newspapers, magazines, drawings, photos, videos, products, prototypes and plastic models. This heritage, consisting in approximately 7,300 linear metres, with more than 3,700 of them inventoried, is a systematic work of electronic filing and, as much as possible, digitising.
The association also keeps, on deposit from the Adriano Olivetti Foundation, the archive collecting company and private correspondence of Camilo, Adriano and other members of the Olivetti Family, the MovimentoComunità e delleEdizioni di Comunità (Community Movement and Community Editions) archive and the personal library of Ludovico Quaroni.
The activity of the Association does not finish strictly with the documental recovery, catalogue and preservation archival work, but it is also manifest with the assistance and consulting activities towards scholars and researchers, organisation and/or collaboration with cultural activities of private and public entities, exhibits, films, conferences, studies, research and publications finalised at promoting and examining knowledge of history and Olivetti values.
The great exhibit about the history of the Olivetti industrial project organised by the Association in 2008 to celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of the Company is now transformed into a permanent exhibit located in VillettaCasana, just a short walk from the location of the Archives.
It is necessary to contact the Association